Winslow Homer, West Point, Prout’s Neck, 1900. Homer considered West Point, Prout’s Neck one of his greatest seascapes is part of the Art Museums Super Bowl Wager. Image courtesy of Clark Art Institute

ART NEWS

Excitement grows as two art museums Super Bowl wager will ensure temporary loans of major paintings by famous artists to the winning art institution.

BY KAZAD

SEATTLE— When the Super Bowl kicks off on Sunday, administrators at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and New England’s Clark Art Institute will be attentive to their televisions. Soon after the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots emerged as the two teams to play in Super Bowl XLIX, the Seattle Art Museum and Clark Art Institute agreed to wager major works of art from their collections on the outcome of the game.

Who Wins the Art Museums Super Bowl Wager?

The wager will ensure temporary loans of major paintings to the winning art institution. Adding to the excitement are the masterpieces for this wager. The paintings showcase the beautiful landscapes of the Northwest and Northeast, respectively. The winning museum will receive a three-month loan of the prized artwork. The losing museum will also pay for shipping and all other expenses.

The Stakes: Kimerly Rorschach (SAM)  Vs. Michael Conforti (CAI)

The majestic Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast from 1870 by Albert Bierstadt is an important piece from SAM’s American art collection. Waging the painting is Kimerly Rorschach, SAM’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Director and CEO.

Winslow Homer’s masterpiece, West Point, Prout’s Neck (1900), is one of the greatest works in Clark’s popular Homer collection. Michael Conforti, director of the Clark Art Institute is the one waging this piece.

Seattle Art Museum’s Wager: Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, 1870 by Albert Bierstadt

Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast is a spectacular eight-foot-wide view of Puget Sound. It is the result of a new interest in a region Bierstadt had visited only briefly seven years earlier. Painted in 1870, Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast is one of the most novel subjects of Albert Bierstadt’s career. Beyond a beautiful landscape, the painting also has historical significance. It is a narrative of an ancient maritime people and a rumination on the ages-old mountains. The painting illuminates the basaltic rocks, dense woods, glacial rivers, and surf-pounded shores that have given the Northwest its look and also shaped its culture.

Clark Art Institute’s Wager: West Point, Prout’s Neck, 1900 by Winslow Homer

West Point, Prout’s Neck, is the culmination of Winslow Homer’s intense study of the coast of Maine, where he spent his last years as an artist. Homer considered West Point, Prout’s Neck one of his greatest seascapes. In addition to its aesthetics, it also links years of studies and observation. In West Point, Prout’s Neck, waves crash against massive rocks as bands of brilliant color stretch across the horizon, casting a rosy glow over the ocean. “The picture is painted fifteen minutes after sunset—not one minute before,” wrote Homer. Homer further explains that recording such a fleeting moment took “many days of careful observation.” The brilliance of Homer’s color and brushwork radiantly expresses the power of nature.

The Die is Cast and Anxiety Grows

As the Super Bowl XLIX kickoff draws closer, the two art institutions can not contain themselves. They boastfully support their teams at every opportunity. Kimerly Rorschach, SAM’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Director and CEO, is certain that the Seattle Seahawks will win Super Bowl XLIX. She also believes art lovers will get the opportunity to enjoy Winslow Homer’s exceptional painting, for three months:

I am sure that this beautiful Homer painting will be coming to Seattle after our Seahawks defeat the Patriots for another Super Bowl win. We are already making plans to host this incredible work of American art in our galleries so that the 12s can enjoy it.

Rorschach’s confidence is evidently from last year’s win over the Denver Art Museum (DAM). Last year, SAM and DAM agreed to a wager on Super Bowl XLVIII between the Seahawks and Broncos. SAM won the bet when the Seahawks beat the Broncos 43-8. As the loser, Denver Art Museum lent its Broncho Buster to SAM. The bronze sculpture, an icon of the West is by Frederic Remington. It is from the famous western American art collection at the DAM. With the loss, DAM also denied Denver art lovers the opportunity to experience a majestic Native American mask, reminiscent of a mighty “Seahawk” from SAM’s renowned Northwest Coast Native American art collection.

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The Seattle Seahawks’ grand style win over the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII is giving people of Seattle some home. Ironically, there is a lot of fear at the Clark Art Institute. The fact that the DAM had to lend its priced sculpture to the SAM is causing heart palpitation at Clark. Michael Conforti, director of the Clark Art Institute, though certain that New England Patriots will win Super Bowl XLIX, is consciously optimistic:

The way we see it, nobody loses with this wager. Albert Bierstadt was raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts, so we will be very happy to welcome the work of a native son back to New England following the Patriots’ win on game day. Having just opened our new building, we’ve got just the right spot to show this remarkable Bierstadt and know our visitors will love the chance to see it.

The wager between the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and New England’s Clark Art Institute is generating excitement on different levels. In the art world and among football fans, there are intense conversations about who will win the wager. As Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots fans converge at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona to cheer their teams to victory on the football field, art lovers are also cheering for their museums in this wager that is evidently going into the record books.

Winners and Losers

If New England’s Clark Art Institute wins the wager, Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, 1870 by Albert Bierstadt, will fit perfectly with the Institution’s new beautiful architecture and exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture. However, if SAM comes out on top, Winslow Homer’s masterpiece, West Point, Prout’s Neck (1900), will go to the museum. It will help enhance the museum’s mission to enrich lives and engage diverse communities. But more importantly, it will bolster its ability to provide unique educational resources benefiting the Seattle region, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.

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